We spent the end of Feb/first of March on a trip out "west" to Big Bend National Park -- that's the big bend in the Rio Grande River in west Texas. It's a long drive from here, partly because it seems to be an hour between intersections -- I mean towns -- the farther west you go. Not country I could ever be happy in.
But it's starkly beautiful, and more so when we got to Big Bend. There we were in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, punctutated by mountains. Not a mountain range, since this was all ancient volcanic activity. So each peak was interesting and different geologically. It seemed very incongruous to see mountains and desert coexisting, to say nothing of desert and river. Yes, I know that's my East Coast bias!
We thought we'd do more hiking than we did, but the trails are really for backcountry hiking -- not possible with a toddler. But we did a bunch of long "walks" (over a mile each) to see several river canyons, some hot springs, a windmill-fed decidious tree grove. The water-themed trails were all easier than the desert and mountains ones. Plus we got to see into Mexico!
We figured we ought to do one of our hikes in the desert, so that was our long (6-mile) one. Being carried all afternoon really wore Katie out. :)
We stayed in the Chisos Mountains Basin lodge, really a collection of cabins and hotels with a common restaurant; it was a beautiful setting -- totally surrounded by mountains. We took advantage of some of the darkest skies in the US, at a ranger-led stars program. Very cool. We also saw antelope, lots of deer, a fox (might have been a coyote, it was that big), and a few roadrunners. No bears, mountain lions, or javelinas, but that's OK with us!
I'm glad we saw that part of the country, but one short trip was enough for me. I like small towns, but that's too sparse -- in people and plants -- for me. Takes a special person to appreciate it year-round, I guess.
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